Improvement in voltaic pile for medical purposes



, A. c. GARRATT.

Patented Dec 29; 1868.

Medical Battery.

.[nvenZ'orr N.PE|'ER8. PNOIO-UTHOGRAFHER. WA

finder gem Hire.

Maw-- ALFRED C. GARRATT, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

Letters Patent No. 85,300, dated December 29, 1868.

To all whom it may concern:

' Be it known that l, ALFRED O. GARRATT, of Boston, county of Suffolk,and State of Massachusetts,

.have invented certain Improvements in Voltaic Batteries, to be usedupon the body in the treatment of disease, which I call An ImprovedHumboldt Medical Battery, and I do hereby declare that the following isa full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 represents a complete battery,of circular form.

Figure 2 represents a section of a straight battery.

Figure 3 represents the back of the straight plates, and manner ofconnecting them.

It has long been a question among electricians as to a convenient methodof applying electricity locally, as cases frequently occur in medicalpractice when it would be of great benefit ifa constant primary currentof electricity could be applied to the part of the body diseased, andmembers of the medical profession have been at a loss to'secure theproper means of locally applying this primary current for continuousgentle action, so much desired.

There have been various attempts to so construct abattery for localapplication, as to secure the proper electrical current, but so far theattempts have been without satisfactory results.

The object of my invention is to produce auelectrophysiological battery,which can be applied to anypart of the human body, which battery, by theaction of-the natural perspiration from the skin upon the dissimilarmetals comprising my battery, as an exciting-fluid, shall generateaconstant and eificient primary current of electricity.

I accomplish my purpose by arranging pairs of plates of dissimilarmetals, after the principles incorporated in Letters Patent granted meby theUnited States, December 31, 1867, and July 7 1868, upon anydurable and flexible non-conducting base, and insulating the plates fromthis base, and insulating the pairs of plates from the next pair, by anygood insulator, like rubber cloth. These plates may be of any convenientshape, but the shapes given in the drawings are well adapted for thepurposes to which I put my apparatus.

In the drawings, a represents zinc plates, and b copper plates, orcopper rolled with silver, or any suitable metal dissimilar to zinc. Theplates are made of rolled metal, and of a proper thickness, sayone-fortieth of an inch. The zinc plate and the copper plate aresoldered together at 0, thus making a pair of plates of dissimilarnietals. These pairs are then attached by thread tto a durable andflexible non-conducting base, in such a manner that the difi'crentmetals sliall be alternate. Each pair is insulated from the next pair byinserting a strip of rubber cloth, e, or any good insulating-material,between each pair and the next.

is the natural perspiration from the body. between the different platesand pairs are preserved by I arrange these pairs in a circle, as shownin fig. 1, or I may arrange them so as to make a straight battery,

as shown in 2, or I may arrange them in any suitable shape, as may berequired for any particular local application.

These pairs are insulated from the base 71, by soft rubber or otherinsulator, and they are connected in such a manner as not to fluctuatethe electric current, and at the same time the connection is completclvinsulated, so as to be neat and flexible.

In the circular battery I place, over the centre, a piece of rubbercloth, (7, or its equivalent, the use of which is to insulate the endsof the plates from the body, and give free action to the electricalcurrent.

My improved Humboldt medical battery is to be applied directly to theskin, and thus worn, so that the living limb or body of the patient actsthe vehicle for supplying the spaces between the pairs over theinsulator c and the metals, with an exciting-liquid, whichthe peculiarflange on the platesthemselves, shown at i, andby the insulations.

The first Humboldt battery, known as such to science, and described inmy work on medical electricity, edition of Ticknor & Fields, 1860, page113, of which I was the originator, and which I gave to the world, isnot -so complete as I could wish, and I have therefore interestedmyself, by great pains and expense, to produce my improved Humboldtmedical battery, which is an electro-physiological battery and theconvenience and usefulness of this cheap, durable, and least troublesomeof all galvanic arrangements, and its peculiar adaptation, underfi'equently-occurring circumstances, for the treatment of differentcases, must giveit a more prominent place, among practical and reliableelectro-therapeutics, than that gained by my original invention, for thepresent improved arrangement and structure secures far greater and moreuniform efficiency. If the friction of the body upon the surface of theplates does not keep them sufilciently bright, they can easily be rubbedwith a piece of wash-leather or any suitable material.

b I am well aware of the nature of 'Pulvermachei s chain, a Germaninvention, and I do not claim any arrangement analogous to it. I am alsoaware of the natiu'e and claim of Thomas Halls patent, of February 7,1865, for voltaic soles, and I disclaim his arrangement of lappingplates of dissimilar metals, as {there is no current in an apparatusconstructed after his alleged invention, as no compound primary currentcan be produced without a series of complete elements; in fact,scientific demonstration with the galvaiiometer proves Halls voltaicsole to have no'electrical current as a whole, while a batteryconstructed according to my invention can easily be pro 'ed to possessall the qualities I claim for it.

The spaces l-l'nving thus fully described my improvemeni',

What I claim as my invention, and desire in swure by Letters Patent, is-

An LlCCtl'O-flfllySlUlUglCILl battery, constructed by zirr urging :Lseriespi' pairs of dissimilar mend plates, as elements completelyinsulated from each other, and from the base, as described, and theplates of each pail firmly i-onnee-ted, as shown, all arranged upon aflexible non-conducting base, as and for the purposes described in thisspecification.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this speeifieaitiim, inthe presence of two subscribing witnesses.

\Vitnesses: ALFRED C. GARRATT.

CARROLL D. \VRIGHT, A. F. BUTTER\\-'ORTH.

